Taking aspirin in a regular basis after being diagnosed with colon cancer has been found to reduce improve the chances of surviving the disease, Harvard researchers have found.

It has been suggested that regular use of aspirin can reduce the chances of developing colorectal cancer but now it has also been found that it reduces mortality in those who do have the cancer.

Daily low dose aspirin is often used to prevent heart attacks in people who have already had one or who are at high risk of having their first. It is also used after some forms of stroke and there is growing evidence of its use to prevent dementia and some cancers.
Scientists at Massachuettes General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston studied 1,279 men and women with colorectal cancer at various stages.

Dr Andrew Chan, writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association said that aspirin is likely to help prevent colorectal cancer because it blocks the COX-2 enzyme which encourages inflammation and cells to multiply. The enzyme is produced in large quantities in many colorectal cancers.

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